Intellectual style theories: different types of categorizations and their relevance for practitioners

During the second half of the 20th century, a large number of psychological theories of intellectual styles were developed. The term intellectual styles is an umbrella term proposed by Zhang and Sternberg (2005) to unify 10 theoretical frameworks of style, and it is gaining increasing use as an encompassing term for theories of cognitive, personality, learning, teaching and thinking styles, etc. In 1984 Messick (1984) stated that more than 19 cognitive styles could be defined at his time of writing. Seven years later, Riding and Cheema (1991) identified more than 30 different constructions of theories of styles designated cognitive styles or learning styles. In more recent reviews, the stated number of style theories is considerable higher, but also, in most cases, subject to a greater degree of uncertainty in labeling theories as theories of cognitive, learning, teaching, personality style, etc., and in some cases also a looseness in distinguishing theoretical models (or conceptual frameworks) from instruments. In an investigation of the applicability of learning style theories, Coffield et al. (2004) claimed to identify 71 theories of learning styles. In connection with Nielsen’s (2012) historical review of the styles literature, the count of what was referred to as style theories/conceptual models of styles, in 488 articles, reached 78, and 208 different instruments for the measurement of styles were referenced. However, the numbers can be expected to be somewhat, if not substantially larger, as the 488 articles reviewed in detail belonged to a larger pool of articles on styles (N = 2931). Evans and Waring's (2012) review of applications of styles in educational instruction and assessment identified 84 differently named style models.

Based on information such as the above, practitioners may be tempted to believe that a rapid development of style theories has been taking place, and indeed new theories (and instruments) have been developed through the years and are still being developed. However, the situation behind the number of theories in the different reviews is more a mixture of development of new theories, and the fact that the different reviews and summary works define both the overall concept of styles as well as the more specific style concepts in different ways. These differences in definitions are more often than not subtle – and as such elusive to the practitioner – but can have a big impact on the number of theories claimed to be theories of styles, as well as the number of theories claimed to specifically be theories of learning styles, cognitive styles, etc. For example, at the general level, at least one of Coffield et al.'s (2004) acclaimed theories of style was not as such a style theory, but rather a categorization model of style theories (i.e. Curry's onion model 1981). Another example at the general level, is the more recent article by Kozhevnikov et al. (2014), where the concepts of extrinsic-intrinsic motivation and tolerance for ambiguity were, quite unusually, claimed to be styles. An in depth look at the included reviews does, however, also show disagreement as to whether a number of other individual difference constructs are indeed style concepts or other types of individual differences, such as personality, ability and preferences for certain career fields or jobs (i.e. the Myers-Brigs personality types, Witkin's field-dependence/field-independence, Holland’s career-personality types).

Adding to the difficulties facing practitioners wanting to find a suitable theory of styles to apply in their own field of work are the many disagreements on the overall orientation or nature of the styles (for example cognitive or personality oriented styles) across the many different theories. Depending on the review or summary work consulted, a single theory may be categorized as a theory of cognitive styles in one review and a theory of personality styles in another review. Nielsen (2012) determined clearly that both theories and instruments were labeled somewhat arbitrarily as theories/instruments of learning, cognitive or teaching styles, in 488 articles reviewed in detail.

It is evident that the disagreements on the general as well as the more specific definitions of styles in the field have lead to many different categorizations of style theories based on different sets of criteria. Such disagreements are, of course, fruitful within the field of style theory and research as they stimulate further discussion, ideas and development. However, the same disagreements and the resulting different categorizations of theories of styles may very well have negative consequences for the intended fields of application of the theories and the associated instruments for measuring styles, because practitioners seeking the theory and instrument best suited for their intended use/application simply cannot find their way through this jungle of disagreements. Or worse still, the practitioners might not realize that it is a jungle, because as the concepts being used in reviews, which have sought to categorize and give an overview of the styles field, are the same word-wise, but defined quite differently, the resulting categorizations have appeared to be more alike than they really are.

The aim of the present study is to aid practitioners in finding some paths through this jungle and in choosing the "right" theory and measurement of style for their intended practical purpose. This will be achieved through a detailed analysis of a number of existing reviews and summary works, which categorize style theories, and placing these categorizations into a new proposed taxonomy for the organization (or categorization) of style theory categorizations, with three main types of categorization. This analysis will bring forward commonalities and differences between the different theory categorizations, thereby providing practitioners with useful information. That is, information on practice-related core concepts such as overall orientation of theories (cognitive, personality and/or learning/teaching styles), as well as stability and pedagogical amenability, which can aid the practitioner in his/her search for an appropriate theory within their intended area of use/application.

The first two reviews in Table 1 (Rayner and Riding 1997 and Sternberg and Grigorenko 2001) implement a pure type A categorization, i.e. they solely use the co-ordinate categories to sort the theories of styles. In both of these works, a single co-ordinate category is added to the two classical categories (cognition and personality oriented style theories), i.e. learning and activity oriented style theories respectively, where the latter in fact covers theories of learning and/or teaching styles. However, since these two reviews are concerned with different segments of the field of style theories, there is only slight concurrence in the theories placed in this third co-ordinate category; Kolb’s theory of experiential learning (Kolb 1984) and Dunn & Dunn’s learning styles (Dunn and Dunn 1993) are the only two theories, which are present in both Rayner and Riding's (1997) learning oriented category and in Sternberg and Grigorenko's (2001) activity oriented category.

The last two reviews in Table 1 (Jonassen and Grabowski 1993 and Coffield et al. 2004) implement a combination of the type A and type B categorizations, as they construct a taxonomy of theories of styles around the two basic co-ordinate categories (cognition orientated and personality orientated) each based on a different criterion - this we will return to in section on type B categorizations.

Looking at all four reviews in Table 1, only slight concurrence was found in the categorizations of style theories into the cognitive and personality style categories respectively, across the reviews. Thus Witkin’s perceptual styles (Witkin 1962) and Kagan’s conceptual tempo styles (Kagan 1966) were categorized as cognition oriented theories of styles, while Myers-Briggs’ theory of personality types (Myers and McCaulley 1985) was categorized as a personality oriented style theory in all four reviews.

A summative suggestion for a co-ordinate categorisation

Based on the agreements and differences in the categorizations in the four review works in Table 1, as well as a number of the theory originators’ own explanations of their theories, an attempt is made to unite all these similarities and discrepancies in categorizations in a new co-ordinate categorization (Figure 1). This new co-ordinate categorization contains five categories, which are mutually co-ordinate and not hierarchically or taxonomically related to one another. The vertical axis, inspired by Sternberg and Grigorenko (2001) and Rayner and Riding (1997), consists of the two classical categories; cognition and personality oriented theories of styles, with the category for learning and teaching oriented theories of styles placed in between these. The placement of the horizontal axis between the cognition and personality oriented styles theories is meant to imply that all of the theories on this axis draw on both of these classical psychological disciplines. The horizontal axis consists of the category learning and teaching oriented theories of styles in the middle, to which is added two categories: to the right, a category for theories on approaches to learning, which are style-like concepts, but strictly speaking not styles. To the left, a category of multi-oriented theories of styles, first suggested by Nielsen (2001). In Figure 1, brackets indicate where originators of a number of the theories as well as where the four reviews in Table 1 would place the given theories, and disagreements on the placement of a theory are illustrated by arrows pointing to alternative category placements according to other authors.

The placement of the individual theories of styles in the five categories in Figure 1 does not cover the field, rather it is an exemplification including only a selection of theories, which are recurring in the four review works in Table 1. Thus, only three of the classical theories in the cognition and personality oriented categories and two of the classical theories in the learning and teaching oriented category are included as examples in Figure 1. A number of the theories, which other categorizations place in these categories are placed in the so-called multi-oriented theories of styles, since these theories differ from the rest by operating with a higher-level concept of style (for example thinking styles or mind styles), which are in a sense more encompassing concepts than for example learning styles or teaching styles (Gregorc 1982, 1998; Sternberg 1988, 1997) These higher-level style concepts are a sort of umbrella (or meta) concepts as they can be construed as either work styles, learning styles, teaching styles, etc. dependent on the purpose and context they are employed in. They are however, only umbrella concepts in this sense, and not in the overall sense of the newer umbrella concept of intellectual styles, which has been proposed to encapsulate all style theories as well as theories on approaches to learning and teaching (Zhang and Sternberg 2005). Last, theories of approaches to learning and teaching are, in this model, included as an individual group of theories, since they define style-like concepts, but not styles in themselves (Schmeck 1988), even if Zhang & Sternberg’s inclusion of the approaches theories into the intellectual style umbrella concept (2005) appears to have been accepted without anybody in the field questioning this (Zhang et al. 2012).

The summative co-ordinate categorization of styles theories proposed in Figure 1 is considered useful to practitioners, because this type of categorization yields information as to the many different ways of categorizing styles theories proposed in various reviews and summary works, thereby giving the practitioner a brief overview of the confusion in the field as well as an opportunity to navigate through these disagreements according to their prevalent need for knowledge. For example, should a practitioner want to find a theory of learning and teaching styles to work with, one text might point out Gregorc’s mind styles (Gregorc 1982, 1998) as such a theory (Jonassen and Grabowski 1993), while other texts will place Gregorc’s theory of mind styles in a number of different categories of style theories: Sternberg and Grigorenko (2001) places Gregorc’s theory in the category of personality oriented style theories, Rayner and Riding (1997) places it in the category of cognition oriented style theories, and finally the author find that reading Gregorc’s own writings places the theory in the category of multi-oriented style theories. It is indeed no wonder that practitioners trying to choose a learning styles theory or a cognitive styles theory are having a hard time. Summative co-ordinate categorizations of styles theories, as proposed in Figure 1, are also useful to practitioners, because they demonstrate how the practitioner has to seeks out several sources of information to determine the nature of a particular style construct under consideration for practical use.

Two of the reviews (Curry 1981 & Coffield et al. 2004) analyzed employ what can be termed a type B categorization of style theories with reference to a taxonomy, as both of these works categorize style theories according to ordered criteria concerned with the stability of the styles in the different style theories. Styles are defined very differently within the different style theories, also with regard to their degree of (temporal) stability and the degree to which they are malleable. Whether particular styles are stable and/or malleable is crucial information to practitioners, as this determines the degree to which it is pedagogically possible to influence these styles, and the main purpose is often exactly to influence (i.e. change or develop) the thinking-wise preference and possibilities for learning in others. Zhang's (2013) extensive review shows that there is not sufficient empirical evidence as to the malleability of styles within individual theories, even if the existing research does support the notion of varying stability and of malleability of styles. Accordingly practitioners must rely primarily on the theoretical nature of the different styles, and secondarily on the empirical support, when searching for appropriate styles and instruments for practical application. Taxonomies such as Coffield et al.'s (2004) or Curry's (1981) are considered useful tools in this search, as they provide an overview of some style theories with regard to stability and/or malleability, from which the practitioner can narrow in their choice.

As early as 1984, Messick stated that if an agreement of a core understanding of cognitive style could be reached within the field of theories of styles, it would be possible to lay down different types of style dimensions. Further, Messick discussed the attempts that had been made in that direction at his time of writing, and he arrived at 11 core understandings (or types) of cognitive style. These were, however, not mutually exclusive, which is why Messick did not arrive at a final categorization. Yet, the idea of a categorization of styles across theories has been re-addressed by Zhang and Sternberg (2005), who put forward a unifying threefold model of intellectual styles, and again most recently by Kozhevnikov et al. (2014) in their cognitive-style matrix.

Zhang and Sternberg’s (2005) categorization was the first successful suggestion for a taxonomy of styles across theories, and as such a first step towards the development of distinct classes of single styles across theories, as Messick (1984) did not succeed equally well in his attempt to categorize styles across theories.

The categorization by Kozhevnikov et al. (2014) represents another attempt to categorize a number of styles across theories, but primarily whole theories, in a unifying model (i.e. the cognitive style matrix) of cognitive styles. Kozhevnikov et al.'s (2014) categorization, however, rather than making the field clearer to practitioners, adds to the disagreements and perhaps contributes further to the confusion of practitioners by defining and labeling style theories in entirely new, and inconsistent, ways. Kozhevnikov et al. raises cognitive style from being but one form of style to instead being an umbrella concept encompassing "traditional cognitive styles", "learning styles" and "decision making styles", somewhat in the same way as Zhang and Sternberg's (2005) proposed the umbrella term "intellectual style". However, as the concept of cognitive styles have always between a distinct category of style theories - even if defined differently by different theorists and researchers - such a change in the use of the concepts is considered confusing rather than elucidating. Also, the single style theories that are placed in the cognitive style matrix are not just "traditional cognitive styles", "learning styles" and "decision making styles", but also include constructs that are not commonly conceived as style constructs, i.e. "intrinsic/extrinsic motivation" in Biggs (1987), which are indeed students motives which in turn affect their learning strategies or styles (Riding and Rayner 2000), and "tolerance for ambiguity" (see Furnham and Ribchester 1995). If fact both of these constructs are categorized first as learning styles and ultimately as cognitive styles in Kozhevnikov et al.'s cognitive styles matrix. Furthermore, Kozhevnikov et al. (2014) appear to define learning styles, as any style constructs (as well as other constructs of individual differences - see above), which has been used to measure styles or individual differences in an educational context. In the same way, Kozhevnikov et al. appear to define decision making styles, as any style construct that has been used to measure styles in a business/management context. This categorization or labeling of style theories exclusively according to the context they are used in, is not only unusual, but indeed in opposition to the main body of work on the nature of the different style theories, where the actual construct and its content has been central. This break with the styles field in general might lead the research field forward, but can only confuse practitioners. It should be mentioned that Koshevnikov et al. do write that the proposed taxonomy is a work in progress to be further developed, and as such it might in the future be developed so that it does provide practitioners with a new "tool" in their search for relavent style theories.

Zhang and Sternberg’s (2005) categorization, is thus found to still be the most comprehensive and useful categorization for practitioners, as it creates new opportunities, both with regards to the exploration of styles and with regards to working with styles in practice. Taking this style taxonomy as one’s point of departure, the practitioner may thus achieve a full overview of the styles in ten theories and how these relate to the six characteristics mentioned, as well as which of the three types of styles they belong to. When used in combination with a stability taxonomy of styles, such as for example Coffield et al.’s (2004) stability taxonomy (cf. Table 2) or Curry's (1981) onion model, this provides practitioners with new possibilities of choice of style theory or single styles, depending on the level of changed which is sought achieved in the specific pedagogical work, as well as of relating the chosen theory to the overall goal one wishes to work towards as a practitioner (with one’s own teaching styles or with one’s students’ learning styles), in relation to the more general terms of style like creative, analytical and performance oriented in Zhang and Sternberg's categorization.

The different types of categorizations of theories of styles proposed may provide practitioners with useful information on the overall orientation of theories as well as stability, pedagogical amenability of different styles in connection with the intended use of styles in pedagogical work or other areas of practice. There are, however, subjects within the field of theories of styles equally relevant to practitioners which have not been covered in this paper, due to the extent of these subjects. One such subject is the development which has taken place with regards to measuring instruments for the “uncovering” of styles. Another is the relationship between the different concepts of styles (for example cognitive style and learning style), and the relationship between style and concepts such as abilities and personality. So, even if the present discussion has provided some paths through the “jungle of theories of styles”, additional work concerned with providing practitioners with clear summative knowledge across many more theories are needed in order to make the field of style theories more easily accessible and practically appealing to practitioners. Such future work could utilize the categorizations proposed in this paper, and could focus on subjects of importance to practitioners, such as: overall orientation of theories, stability of styles and pedagogical susceptibility of styles, within different areas of application.